Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 835 and Quick Charge 4.0 for the Android flagships of 2017

Those of you who pore over smartphone specs will recognize Qualcomm as the major player in mobile processors and charging standards, and the US company has just announced its latest technologies ready for the flagships of 2017.

First up is the Snapdragon 835 CPU, the successor to the Snapdragon 820 and 821 chips found in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Google Pixel XL, respectively. As usual, the promise is more power with less energy (and less draw on your phone's battery).

This time Qualcomm is using a brand new 10-nanometer (nm) standard in its processors, developed in partnership with Samsung, replacing the existing 14 nm technology. Essentially, this means CPUs that are smaller and lighter than ever, offering yet more benefits for the many manufacturers likely to make use of them.

Qualcomm says the 10 nm Snapdragon 835 will offer up to a 30 percent increase in area efficiency, up to 27 percent higher performance, and up to 40 percent lower power consumption compared to this year's chips.

A new Quick Charge 4.0 standard has also been unveiled, which works alongside the Snapdragon 835 to give your handset more juice in a faster time. Qualcomm says the charging is 20 percent faster and up to 30 percent more efficient than Quick Charge 3.0, which is the current leading standard.

It's claiming up to five hours of use from five minutes of charging – if we see that in an actual handset next year we'll be very impressed indeed. Unlike Quick Charge 3.0, Quick Charge 4.0 also adds full compliance with the latest USB-C standard.

As an added bonus, it's designed to be better at optimizing voltages and temperatures, which is reassuring considering the year Samsung's just had.

All of these figures will vary depending on handset makers and just how efficient they can get their 2017 designs to be, but you can expect to hear a lot more about the Snapdragon 835 and Quick Charge 4.0 from the start of next year.